When I was a struggling out of work lawyer (the first time around), my then-boyfriend (now husband), got Juan Williams to sign a copy of his biography on Thurgood Marshall. The inscription included words of encouragement to me and a reminder that everyone stumbles sometimes, even someone as great as Justice Marshall. I reflected on that inscription in the wee hours of the morning when I first read the tweet that announced Williams' dismissal from NPR, and here is my take on this whole incident:
So a couple of nights ago I woke up to turn off my computer and saw a random tweet that Juan Williams had been fired from NPR for comments he had made on the O'Reilly Factor. It seemed odd that the tweet had been posted at midnight and that it linked to afull-page article attached to a full-sized photo of Williams. Seemed like someone was really angry and needed to prove a point...
Now curious and wide awake, I clicked to the New York Times and Washington Post websites to read if there were any additional details, and sure enough, my hunch was correct--Williams had apparently pissed off a few folks at NPR and his recent comments were the final straw that resulted in his dismissal.
The real story is not that Williams got canned, but what happened next. The next day, he got the ultimate payback in the form of a $2 million multi-year contract from FOX. And that is when things really got interesting because this is an election year, Juan Williams is black, the controversial subject of his remarks were Muslims on airplanes, and NPR is perceived to be a snooty liberal government welfare recipient whose hand just happened to be out all last week soliciting listener donations. This was all a perfect storm...
A perfect storm that began with NPR attempting to justify a personal decision as a personnel decision based on the elusive conceit of journalistic integrity (which is about as transparent as Williams' fortuitous job offer from FOX...) Perhaps two recent firings provide instructive analogies here: Williams was (Shirley) Sherroded by NPR; then he went over to FOX and (Rick) Sanchezed them.
The Sherrod-ing was in firing him without really listening to the entire interview. Taken out of context, Williams suggested that he gets nervous when he sees passengers in Muslim garb aboard an airplane. But in its full context, Williams was really saying that we all have moments when it might be easier to make a snap judgment, but it takes more courage to truly analyze a situation in order to move beyond our gut feelings. After taking that next step, we have the power to decide whether to succumb to fear, ignorance, racism or personal animous. Ironically, NPR's management made a snap judgment and foolishly stuck with it.
And then Williams turned around and Sanchezed NPR by burning that bridge. I have no illusions that Juan Williams did not see the handwriting on the wall with respect to his dual career as a senior news analyst at NPR and as a liberal commentator at FOX. He could not continue to do both and it was clear that his expanding role at FOX had more to offer than did his diminishing role at NPR. He certainly could have left NPR to join FOX full-time, but it was far more lucrative for him to get sacked, especially since he has recovered quite nicely and no longer has to operate under the constraints of "journalistic integrity". Now I am not suggesting that he intentionally made provocative statements to get fired, but he certainly had to have known that he was teetering so close to going over the line that if he breathed too hard that would have been enough. Juan Williams is nobody's fool...or victim.
And now NPR's government funding is an election-year issue and we're debating Islam again. Juan Williams gets another shot at relevance and FOX News gets to pretend that it really is 'fair and balanced' for swooping in at just the right moment to defend the First Amendment and for hiring a self-proclaimed (yet disgruntled) liberal. Not bad in a week when the real story should have been the reignited Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill saga, brought to us by his embittered wife and his long-lost ex-girlfriend.
The other issue that simmers just below the surface of all of this is the fact that Juan Williams was one of a handful of black or brown voices on the air at NPR. Not that his presence ever provided me with any compelling reasons to become a supporter of my local station, but I wonder how many other people of color had given NPR a pass for allowing diverse content to make up for a quantifiable lack of diversity in its on-air talent.
Hopefully, this distraction will blow over by mid-week and attentions will shift to real issues again. On Facebook I commented to one of my friends that I hope Juan Williams will enjoy stepping into the "Colmes" role for Bill O'Reilly because that is about all his $2 million contract is worth at face value. Regardless of the outcome of this election, I am sure that enough liberal elites will band together to save NPR just as we did back in the 90s to save Big Bird and Barney the Dinosaur. We really will not come to any conclusions about Islam in one news cycle and I am sure that NPR will find another senior black correspondent or two. And I will join my local station.
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